Such a sad day as I lost a great friend and the needlepoint world lost a brilliant mind. I will look at every piece that she worked on with me and remember the good times, the laughs and the stitches learned. Speaking of laughs, this was a very fun day at the Needle Nook of La Jolla a few years ago with Mary Alice Sinton. And in case you didn’t know, Brenda Hart passed last night. Go with God and bring your stitching along Brenda ..read more

I usually retire my Padres purse after baseball season ends. It was such a great season for our San Diego Padres, that I wasn’t ready to do it that soon! Plus… I had tickets to an Elton John concert…and why did I wait till he was almost ready to retire to go and see him? Well it was at Petco Park, home of the Padres and couldn’t bring any bags in. And then I went to see Hamilton, so that delayed the changeover. But today I will ceremoniously change them. I have bought a new wallet to go with the colors and I have a darling little change purse with cats on it. Go figure?!? It was a gift from ..read more

Just back from its recent appearance in the exhibit at the American Needlepoint Guild Seminar in Tucson, where my bag garnered two ribbons! A first place and my most prized ribbon ever, The Princess Grace, which is given to a piece stitched all in basketweave, nothing else! I’ve been after this ribbon for a very long time and finally! I will save my basketweave journey for another time. The canvas is by the Meredith Collection and the finishing is by M’s Canvashouse. Yes they’re one in the same and they do it all! I thank them for their beautiful finishing. I thank the ladies who stitched ..read more

Did you ever take a class with the Embellishment Squad? it started 13 years ago with Meredith Willett, Suzanne Howren, Beth Robertson and Tony Minieri teaching this amazing class at ANG seminars and shops across the US. It was a great success and I prowl their teaching schedule to this day to see where they teach next! Sadly Beth passed away in 2014, Linda Corrirossi stepped in for one class and then Debbie Stiehler taught with them many times. If you ever took a class with them, they would talk quite frequently about creating a book of the stitches from classes. And you would always here abo ..read more

There are 2 kinds of finishes, would you agree? One type of finish is when you’ve stitched the last stitch, check for missing stitching and then take it off the bars. Then the other finish is when it comes back from the finishers. The Meredith Collection finishers worked their magic on this! Through the finishing procedure, they sent me pictures of the leather swatches to select what I wanted. Two previous stitchers that had stitched this bag, one selected black and the other this color. So I went with this color. Every time I saw the black bag, I second guessed my choices. But I am thrilled ..read more

I was showing you the custom canvas that Patti Mann painted for me, but I wasn’t able to get the picture to load. This is my Mooch and he is quite the character with really big eyes! I have always loved Patti Mann canvases, but had no idea that she was this amazing as an artists! Wow, I was definitely blown away. It’s really fabulous, especially when you look at the details in the pot that she captured. I haven’t been stitching much these last few weeks on this and I had a birthday present to finish stitching and a few other things to take care of. Along with our collection of canvases, of c ..read more

So I’ve been told that it’s been a really long time since I last blogged?! I’m thrilled that you’ve missed me and hopefully I still remember how to do this…or should I say hopefully they haven’t changed too much. So far, so good! Let me start off with the loves of my life! Mooch and Miss Meow. I really did win the lottery when I rescued these 2 from the Humane Society. A few of their few favorite things are supurrvising my stitching as they are here or: Bird watching or as I say viewing kitty tv! If you look in the upper right you will see a birdie. It sat there quite a while as did the cats ..read more

Merry Christmas! And let’s try this again…worked on this a few hours ago and while trying to resize a picture, poof! It was all gone! Mooch has been having his way with more than one package! They are, well especially Mooch is, so very entertaining as he is exceptionally mischievous. I finally opened this package as it was marked to Mooch and Miss Meow, but when finally opened, they could’ve cared less! Another year has gone by and really much hasn’t changed has it? I opted not to fly to NY for Christmas this year, not necessarily because I was worried about catching anything, but more worr ..read more

I’ve been putting in some marathon days lately finishing up my purse, an Adelaide style bag…well that’s what they call it! from the Meredith Collection. I think Mooch was telling me here that I was ignoring him too long and he wanted some pets! I got home from the shop last Saturday and just stitched round the clock and finished early Sunday morning! Yes! Spent time looking for missed stitches, which luckily or unluckily there were none and getting the cat hair out. Here are both sides with Planet Earth Fibers Pepper Pot and Rainbow Gallery Silk Lame Braid that I used to stitch it. A very ..read more

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Where does the time go? Well I’ve been working lots again, especially this month and I give thanks that the shop is busy as we try to get orders out as quickly as we can. Want to keep stitching in your hands! The supply chain is still an issue, with some things better than others. But when I look at the walls and see what we really have to work with, we have lots to give thanks for. While you’ve been busy stitching your 21 in 21, my finishes pale in comparison. Have you discovered these Hedgehog Travel Tags yet? They’re very addictive once you’ve started, trust m ..read more